Tainted Data
by William Penn
Summary: The Lyoko gang journey to Carthage in their fight against Xana. Aelita finds the files, but they have more in them than they bargained for. Will it be the end for Xana or simply the end?


Tainted Data 

By William Penn

The Lyoko gang met Saturday morning at breakfast to discuss their plans for Carthage

,a.k.a Sector 5, largely because most students slept in on Saturday and the earliness of the

hour took away from prying ears. Their expedition had been delayed by XANA, school work,

and life in general. Finally this was the day; it's time had come.

"Are we, finally, on for our little trip today?" Jeremy asked mildly frustrated.

"Actually, I'm up this early so I can turn over a new leaf, eat a healthy breakfast and become

a better student" Odd Della Robbia said with cheerful sarcasm. Odd proceeded to poke a

boiled egg with his fork.

"I'm in. We have to do something about you-know-who." Ulrich Stern said calmly looking at

his breakfast in disgust. Yumi Ishiyama nodded in agreement as Aelita Stones nodded too finishing off a container of

strawberry yogurt.

"Are you ready, Aelita?" Jeremy Belpois looked at her and she smiled.

"Yes, Jeremy. I'm ready!" Aelita said cheerfully. She pushed her tray away having finished her

breakfast while everyone else talked.

"When we finish breakfast, we'll meet at the Factory and take the plunge." Jeremy explained.

Jeremy and Aelita left breakfast together early since Aelita was done with hers and Jeremy

had no appetite. They decided to go to the Factory to prepare.

When the others filed in, Jeremy keyed away at his station in the Lab and Aelita, already

virtual, prepared for their journey at a tower in the Forest Region.

"What's up? Did you start without us?" Ulrich asked.

"No, Aelita thinks she can use a tower to speed up the data collection from Sector Five"

Jeremy explained.

"We are ready from this end, Jeremy" Aelita chimed from the speakers.

"Hold on. I'm sending you your escorts." Jeremy said still reluctant to let Aelita roam alone on

Lyoko even if after she regained her freedom from the Supercomputer.

In the bad old days, Aelita had been trapped in the supercomputer and devirtualization for her

would have been fatal. With the help of Jeremy and her friends and father Franz Hopper, she

survived and eventually regained her physical humanity and could devirtualize like her friends.

"Yes, Jeremy." Aelita sighed thinking he worried too much.

"Scanner, Ulrich!" Jeremy rifled off. "Scanner, Yumi!" He added. "Scanner, Odd!" As the

scanners scanned each of them in turn showering them with light.

The three remaining Lyoko Warriors materialized in the Forest Region as Aelita hailed them

outside the tower where she had been working. She gave them her customary wave and

greeting.

"Let's go!" Ulrich headed for the edge of the Forest Region the others followed without

comment. They quickly reached the edge of the last Island and waited.

"Here comes your ride!" Jeremy keyed in CODE SCIPIO and the spherical transport scooped

up the four heroes and transported them to Carthage.

The transport dropped them on the large platform emblazoned with the Lyoko eye.

The Lyoko Warriors looked around always slightly disoriented by the transport.

"You guys have 2 minutes to find the key!" Jeremy explained as Aelita nodded and took off

like a shot. The others followed carefully navigating the crystal stairs some of which lead

nowhere.

Aelita seemed almost as fast a Ulrich as she jumped navigated and scaled various obstacles.

She wound her way through the shifting crystal chamber.

"I see the key. It's on the wall!" Aelita made straight for it. The others changed course toward

the key.

"Creepers!" Odd exclaimed. He immediately shot two laser arrows into the closest one

exploding it. Aelita had to duck to avoid two shots herself.

"Here I go!" Aelita made a huge leap ignoring the crossfire and hit the key activating it. The

creepers stopped attacking except the two that fired at Aelita. those two hit each other and

staggered around feebly before exploding.

"That's something you don't see everyday!" Yumi commented.

"Yeah, a regular Broadway performance!" Odd chuckled

The chamber shifted revealing the hallway to the exterior lift, which never stops. Aelita and

Odd reached it first and gave one another a curious look before jumping on to the lift as it

spun around Carthage's exterior. Yumi and Ulrich followed suit at the next rotation.

"We're over here!" Aelita waved from across a hallway on the other side of Carthage after

Ulrich and Yumi landed on the opposing ledge. They ran through the hall over to Aelita and

Odd, who watched for mantas. Aelita started accessing Carthage.

"Guys! I'm sending you your taxis!" Jeremy said pleasantly keying the overwing and the other

vehicles.

"I think our friends have lost interest in us!" Odd said sadly.

"I think your worries are over, Odd!" Ulrich pointed at the emerging mantas from the data wall

surrounding Carthage. Odd jumped on the overboard and Yumi on the overwing and the took

off to intercept the emerging Mantas. Ulrich stayed with Aelita with his sword drawn. Ulrich

watched for the mantas with his back to the hallway while Aelita keyed away on her virtual

interface.

"Look out you have company!" Jeremy yelled. "Mantas and Creepers!"

Suddenly, a shot came from behind and hit Aelita in the back laying her prone on her

stomach on the ledge. The attack happened so quickly that Aelita took the hit and landed

without making a sound. Ulrich turned and saw three creepers coming down the hall. Ulrich

jumped in front of Aelita and started deflecting shots.

Aelita got up and shook it off, opened the virtual terminal and started keying again.

"I'm almost there!" She seemed shaken.

"Are you alright, Aelita?" Ulrich asked deflecting shots taking out another creeper.

"I'm alright. I don't know what this data is but there is a lot of it! It's in the right sub-

directory" She looked at the interface wide-eyed.

Yumi, who followed her manta halfway around Carthage threw her fans at a manta which

dodged it with more cunning than normal.

"What?" She exclaimed as the manta headed for Aelita.

"What's the matter, Yumi? Losing your touch?" Odd chuckled. Before Yumi could reply with

choice words, Odd fired two laser arrows and his manta dodged them as well and it turned

toward Aelita.

"Hey, Aelita They seem to only have eyes for you!" Odd warned coasting by the ledge.

"What can I say? I have one of those faces!" Aelita sighed and turned to Ulrich without ceasing

her labors . " Can you give me twenty seconds?" Ulrich looked down the hallway.

"No problem." Ulrich replied. Aelita cycled through each the data like lightening and then

stopped.

"Look out two more mantas!" Jeremy exclaimed. Two more mantas appeared.

"What is going on? It doesn't make sense! I need more time!" Aelita said unnerved by

what she saw. The display lit up brightly and she looked away from the display like it hurt her

eyes. Momentarily stunned, she wavered a little with her head in her hands.

"Wha…" She said disjointedly shaking her head and shutting her eyes for a moment. She

forced herself to continue working. Ulrich had too much happening at one with the new

mantas and the creepers in the hall to notice what happened to Aelita.

"Aelita, are you alright?" Jeremy asked. "I thought I saw…"

"I'm alright!" She replied hotly. "I'm sorry. I'm working as fast as I can!"

The first new arrival attacked directly flying over them which allowed Ulrich to leap up and hit

it after he deflected the initial shots. The damaged manta labored on a few moments trying to

regain control then it devirtualized. One of the creepers then fired at Aelita and missed. Aelita

lobbed an energy sphere at it hitting it. It just exploded.

"Okay, Felicia, time to go!" Odd smiled as Yumi rolled her eyes at Odd's practice of naming

mantas. Odd interrupted the manta's strafing run by jumping on it and firing haphazardly into

the mantas back as it tried to roll and shake him loose. Odd managed to leap onto Yumi's

overwing on an upturn as the doomed manta barrel rolled as it exploded. Yumi tried to hit the

other manta but the manta was well into strafing Aelita.

" Look out, Aelita!" Yumi yelled.

Ulrich saw the manta coming before Yumi's warning as did Aelita, who ignored it and

continued keying. "I figured it out… this data is encrypted. I have to send it all to you,

Jeremy." Aelita said keying even faster. The manta fired as Ulrich stood in front of Aelita

deflecting the shots. Aelita stopped keying a moment. She had a strange feeling as the

creepers started forming up in the hallway behind her. She looked up trying to get a sideways

glance.

"Oh no you don't! Not again!" Aelita fired two energy spheres into the hallway at the creepers.

Two of them exploded but two more emerged behind them. It looked like at least ten of them

crowding the hall like demented wolves.

Aelita didn't know whether to get back to the terminal or continue firing. Her question was

answered as two shots made it past Ulrich ,who devirtualized instantly.

"Jeremy, I have a problem!" Aelita said giddily as the pack of creepers growled and edged

closer to Aelita, who backed off defensively.

"Aelita's in trouble!" Jeremy warned.

Odd and Yumi just finished off the remaining manta, which led them on a merry chase.

"We're on our way!" Yumi replied with Odd on the overwing.

Aelita manage to draw an energy sphere and shape it into a crude shield deflecting some of the shots.

She forced her way forward only to be driven back by the hits which bounced harmlessly off

the shield. She strained to keep the shield up and angle it toward the shots, but she still took

a few hits.

"I can't hold on much longer!" Aelita sounded spent as she sank to her knees at the edge of

the ledge the shield flickering dangerously as her concentration wavered.

"Hurry guys! she's got 40 life points left!" Jeremy warned desperately as the overwing

appeared and Yumi sent her fans flying as Odd leapt in behind them. The fans hit two

creepers apiece in their crowded formation and Odd hit two on his own as he flew toward

them. The hallway suddenly erupted into multiple explosions as Odd landed where the

creepers once stood.

"That wasn't so hard was it?" Odd smiled.

"Look out, Odd!" Yumi and Aelita said in unison as two creepers fired at him. One creeper

slinked in from the ceiling as another one crept in at ground level lower than usual. He ducked

one shot and got hit by another one divirtualizing him.

"I have to learn how to count!" Odd sighed as he disappeared.

Yumi and Aelita attacked the remaining creepers and took them out. Aelita finally collapsed to

her knees exhausted sighing in relief.

"We didn't expect this to be a cake walk, did we?" Yumi sighed. Aelita managed a tired chuckle

as she downloaded the rest of the files.

"Aelita, I need to run a scan on you to see if you're alright. Something weird happened when

you were at the terminal." Jeremy did some keying of his own.

"I'm all right!" Aelita snapped. "I'm not a ceramic doll!"

"A porcelain doll" Odd corrected which earned him an angry glare from Aelita.

"I just don't want Xana to sneak one by us." Jeremy explained. " I don't see anything wrong."

Jeremy took advantage of Aelita's outburst to scan her.

"I'm sorry…." Aelita sighed. "I must be out of it or something!"

Decoder Ring

"What do you think, Jeremy?" Aelita asked suppressing a yawn. That last adventure took its

toll on everyone. Ulrich stretched out like he injured his shoulder in some soccer competition.

Odd leaned on the wall exhausted. Even Yumi seemed out of sorts standing with her hands on

her hips.

"I think this will take most of the night to decrypt it." Jeremy sighed. " I think everyone should

go get some rest while I figure this algorithm out." The others lined up to get into the elevator

with the exception of Aelita, who stood next to Jeremy.

"I don't care how tired I am. If you find out something give me a call." Ulrich said as the rest

bid their farewells.

"Aelita you look tired too" Jeremy looked at her with concern.

"I'm alright. I want to know about this data as much as you do, besides I can take a nap on

the cot later." She responded pleasantly but a little drained. She referred to a cot they kept at

the Factory just in case anyone was injured or tired.

The next morning, Jeremy lay asleep on the keyboard and Aelita yawned and woke up in the

cot which had been set up in the lab itself instead of the factory. She looked puzzled since the

last thing she remembered was reliving Jeremy while he took a break. She went over to

Jeremy who still snoozed at the keyboard unaware of her presence. She gently nudged him

smiling to herself. His back straightened in surprise.

"Honest Jim, I just lost track of time!" Jeremy blurted out thinking of various other excuses for his

tardiness. "Oh,no! It's morning!" Jeremy came to himself as Aelita giggled.

"It's Sunday. We have an great chance that Jim hasn't checked rooms" Aelita said smiling not

entirely successful in suppressing another giggle.

"Did we have any success last night?" Aelita asked seriously. "I must've dozed off."

"No, This encryption is a monster!" Jeremy sighed bitterly.

"Don't worry there has to be a way to figure this out. We should take a break get a bite to eat

and maybe we can figure this out." Suggested Aelita earnestly.

A Close Call

Jeremy and Aelita stepped out of the factory into the morning sun and it made them squint.

Their eyes more accustomed to the more subtle lighting of the underground lab.

"It's a nice day! Do you want to walk in the main entrance today?" Jeremy asked taking

Aelita's hand.

"Sure, I would love to, Jeremy!" She replied coyly making Jeremy nervous. "Strange, I don't

remember getting the cot much less going to sleep in it." Jeremy blushed turning bright red.

He didn't want to get into Aelita's falling asleep on the keyboard. Jeremy went topside to

retreive the foldaway cot and brought it to the lab and set it up then gingerly picked up Aelita

and tucked her in carefully not wanting to disturb her slumber. She was out like a light.

Jeremy just shrugged blushing under the gaze of her suspicious green eyes.

He helped her through the gap in the chained gates leading outside the factory.

Hand in hand they went back to Kadic under the spring sun.

By the time they made it to the main entrance no one would notice the students comings and

goings into town since students who were old enough had limited off campus privileges.

They made it through undetected. They walked along the concourse to the cafeteria. Jeremy

suddenly looked alarmed when he saw Jim standing in front of the cafeteria waiting for

someone.

Before could warn Aelita, she suddenly saw Jim herself and flinched. Jim saw both of them

and huffed straight toward them.

"Belpois! Stones! I've been looking all over for you! Your beds haven't been slept in! I

checked at 04:00! I want an explanation!" Jim thundered making Aelita cringe, but she still

stood beside Jeremy even though he kept trying to shield her.

"Ah, we were working on a class project." Jeremy trying not to sound nervous but failing

miserably.

"We decided to get an early start." Aelita amended laughing nervously.

"What class would that be? Belpois? Stones?" Jim asked sarcastically.

"Science!" "History!" Jeremy and Aelita chimed in unison. Jeremy looked at Aelita who

shrugged nervously. Jim frowned at them both.

"We were fighting about that!" Aelita offered. Jim thought about it a moment. Then his face

softened.

"That's a waste of time! Deciding to get an early start then fighting about which class to work

on! You two really need to cooperate more. It takes more than intelligence to get by in life!"

Jim chided as Aelita and Jeremy looked on with mock interest. "Take it from me. I've been

there but, I don't want talk about it."

"Yes, Jim. We understand!" Jeremy smiled relieved.

"Thank you Jim!" Aelita chimed in before Jim could misinterpret what Jeremy said as smart-a-

leck remark. They proceeded into the cafeteria leaving Jim feeling like a job-well-done.

They saw Ulrich and Odd already seated. Ulrich was glancing impatiently at Jeremy, who

shrugged back him. Odd ate his huge breakfast apparently feeling much better about his

repast than on Saturday. Pancakes and syrup definitely made the difference. Jeremy got in

line and Aelita followed.

Jeremy and Aelita finally made it to Ulrich and Odd's table and sat down.

"What gives? I half expected a call last night." Ulrich asked while Odd continued his repast.

"We didn't get very far. We both took a crack at it and worked until we fell asleep." Jeremy

explained.

"It's using some type of factorial encryption." Aelita added. "It's almost impossible to crack..."

"You just gave me an idea" Jeremy smiled. "I could write a decryption program and use the

supercomputer to amplify its computation speed."

"I would need to activate at least three towers." Aelita nodded in agreement.

"And hope XANA doesn' activate a few of his own." Odd added serenely in a low voice.

"If we do this right we can finally hit him where he lives." Ulrich commented. "We need to call

Yumi." Yumi was with her parents in town.

"Then, we're on again for today?" Ulrich sighed. Odd continued eating.

"At least we won't be bored today!" Odd said wiping his mouth.

Once more to Lyoko

"Jeremy, I don't think we will sneak up on Xana this time." Aelita told him as they

crossed the bridge into the Factory.

"I don't know what else we can do except be careful. It would take us years or never

to break this encryption." Jeremy replied as they swung down the ropes.

"We'd better get ready for a hot reception unless XANA embraced pacifism since our

last meeting!" Odd warned.

"I'd have a better chance of beating Einstein's G.P.A!" Ulrich scoffed. They entered

the elevator. The elevator conveyed them to Jeremy's lab.

"Well, it looks like trouble!" Yumi warned as she noted the alarm on Jeremy's

console.

"Oh no! It looks like an activated tower in the Mountain Sector!" Jeremy seated him

-self and started to key.

"We'll take care of it, Jeremy" Aelita briefly placed her hand on his shoulder as

assurance and followed the others to the Elevator.

Into the Lion's Den

Ulrich, Yumi and Odd materialized in Lyoko and Aelita followed appearing in mid-air

and dropping down to the ground easily landing in a kneeling position like the others

did before her. She quickly stood up and looked around.

"Nothing going on right now." Ulrich said warily looking around expecting an attack.

Yumi and Odd also seemed on edge.

"I'm sending your rides." Jeremy announced. as the overboard, the overwing and

the overcycle appeared in front of them. Ulrich took the overcycle and Aelita joined

him, Odd took his overboard and Yumi, the overwing.

"Einstein! please tell me something's on your screen. Otherwise, I'll begin to think

this is a trap." Odd said as if disappointed.

"Nothing yet, but the tower should be within sight." Jeremy reported never taking his

eyes off the monitor.

"I see it ,Jeremy! It's strange I don't feel right about this." She leapt off a short

distance from the tower. Ulrich did the same following her on her right.

She ran toward the tower without opposition. Odd did a turn around the tower to see

what he could see. Yumi dismounted the overwing and followed Aelita on the left .

"Wait a second! I'm getting a hornet I think!" Jeremy reported unsure of what he was

seeing. " It's behind the tower! It's very strange! It doesn't fit the profile of a normal

hornet. It has twice as many life points and I can't get a reading on weapons!"

Aelita and the others halted.

"We'll get him as he comes around" Odd moved into position. and Ulrich moved in

front of Aelita.

"I think I can still make it!" Aelita said to Ulrich, who waved her off trying to locate the

hornet.

She looked momentarily annoyed.

"Cover Aelita!" Ulrich told Yumi then turned to Aelita and said "Go for it!"

Aelita took off like a shot straight toward the crimson tower.

"Are you sure there is a hornet?" Odd started as he had made another slow turn

around the tower himself on the overboard. A crimson hornet emerged from the

afterglow of the activated tower and cut the distance in half to Aelita, who didn't

change course.

Yumi threw her fans at the hornet, which fired three volleys at Ulrich, one shot he

deflected, the other two hit him knocking him back flat on his back. The hornet

dodged the fans easily as it bore toward Aelita.

Aelita saw it deploy its stinger very close to her. She side stepped it leaping into the

air doing a barrel roll as one of her energy sphere appeared in her right hand. She released

the energy sphere pointblank into the hornet so closely that it looked like she slapped it. It

exploded just as the stinger plunged into her shoulder. Aelita cried out a short yelp

before landing prone on her stomach and laying still.

"Good job Aelita!" Ulrich said failing to note the finality of her landing.

"Good one!" Odd smiled approaching the still motionless Aelita. Odd suddenly

looked concerned.

"Aelita?" Yumi touched her shoulder and Aelita's eyes snapped open.

"Are you all right, Aelita?" Yumi asked. Aelita looked in disarray with her head in

her hands.

"I don't understand! According to the monitor that hornets stinger doesn't have any damage

potential!" Jeremy rechecked his findings again. " It could have downloaded a small program

into her source code…it's not big enough to be a bug."

"I'm fine.. I think." Aelita said drowsily shaking her head. Yumi pointed out a glowing

green coin sized hole in her pink vest around the shoulder. Aelita didn't seem to

notice or care.

"Look! The tower is deactivating" Aelita said suddenly pointed at the crimson tower as

it faded back to blue.

"Aelita, Are you sure you're alright? Just a second, I'm going to scan you." Jeremy

sounded worried.

"I'm fine." She answered irritably. " I can activate this tower and we can get started on

the decryption." Aelita retorted sounding a little off. She started to get up and walk toward the

tower and then staggered. Ulrich taking her by the arm as she wavered glass eyed.

"Jeremy, She's wounded! She got stung by the hornet! It left a green hole in her

shoulder!" Yumi explained. Aelita looked around nervously.

"I feel strange." Aelita sounded disjointed as her vision distorted. The colors shifted

from normal to blue and to red fuzziness. She sat down as Ulrich helped her down.

"Aelita, You're infected with some kind of virus! That sting activated it!" Jeremy explained.

"She must have inadvertently got infected in Carthage! The data!" Jeremy added looking at

a diagram of Aelita on the monitor, which lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Oh, no!" She started as if she realized something important. "You have to stop me!" Aelita

whispered weakly losing consciousness.

"What do we do, Einstein?" Ulrich pleaded. "She's out of it!"

"Whatever it is its all over her source code! I can't even devirtualize her! We have to get her

to a tower before XANA attacks again! The data must be infected too, but I can't detect

anything!" Jeremy said alarmed.

Aelita suddenly sat up straight, stood up and pushed Ulrich sending him fifty yards

away. Odd tried to calm Aelita down but she sent him flying over with a judo throw

She gave Yumi a strange hostile look and started running toward the tower full tilt in a

blur of pink and green. Yumi watched with horror as she went. She got ready to

throw one of her fans to stop her when Ulrich stayed her hand.

"We don't know what would happen if she got devirtualized in the condition she's in!"

Ulrich explained as Aelita disappeared into the tower.

"What's going on?" Yumi asked to no one in particular.

"She's wigging out!" Odd exclaimed. "What can we do?"

"It looks like she's breaking down!" Jeremy almost whispered to himself on the edge

of panic.

"You think?" Ulrich replied in sarcastic wonder.

"No, I mean.. She is breaking down. This could kill her! Her source code is dissolving like an

effervescent tablet in water!" He said ominously. "I have to do something and fast!"

"What is she doing now?"

Ulrich noticed the tower turning red again.

"Just a second!" Jeremy began keying frantically. "She activated a tower. It looks

like she'd hung up on our plan!"

"She's going to decrypt those files." Odd sighed. " Even if it kills her!"

"Play along and keep an eye on her. Meanwhile, I'm going to write an antivirus."

Jeremy looked at the monitor trying to glean more information about Aelita's affliction.

Aelita emerged from the tower looking faded with a strange vacant look on her face. She

looked at her friends and wavered a moment. Everything she saw had a tortured red hue as

the images wavered. Then, she ran away staggering as she went.

The others took their vehicles and followed her. She fell down prone and groaned then

forced herself to her feet and took off again.

"Oh no! The data is dissolving too! She was the trigger! I should've caught that!" Jeremy

moaned.

"Is there anything you can do?" Yumi asked wearily.

"It's like a candle lit at both ends... " Jeremy said on the edge of panic.

"We have to save Aelita!" Ulrich stated with the others agreeing.

"No," said a pained voice. Aelita joined in the discussion. "We must stop Xana!"

Aelita sounded weak but determined.

"Aelita, haven't you been listening? The data is toast! We are not going to kill you to stop

Xana!"" Odd tried to explain.

"We must stop Xana!" She repeated in a trance. They had her in sight. Her pace

slowed. She looked worn out. She looked paler and her eyes even pale. The wound looked

deeper than before and larger blaring through the back of her shoulder.

"We have to stop her. The virus has her following a program. She's brainwashed! The

towers will only speed up her demise and the data's at the same time!" Jeremy shouted.

Aelita approached another tower.

"That's all I needed to know! Get ready to back me up!" Odd sped up the overboard

and took a flying leap and tackled Aelita just short of the tower. She had more fight

left than he thought. She fought him ferociously more like an animal than a person.

"Take it easy, Princess!" Odd tried too calm her down but failed.

"I almost have the antivirus ready. Then, we can devirtualize her!" Jeremy keyed like

his life depended on it.

Ulrich prepared to dive into the fray but Aelita fired an energy sphere at him while he

was in midair and devirtualized him. Odd took control of her hands and she snarled

at him as Yumi restrained her further. Aelita went limp.

"Okay, Odd I have reprogrammed your arrows to administer the antivirus. I can't seem to get

the scanner to do it..." Jeremy explained.

"You mean I have to shoot her?" Odd asked. Aelita lay moaning on the ground with

Yumi trying to revive her.

Without warning Aelita opened her eyes and devirtualized Yumi at point blank range

and made a break for the tower.

"I'm sorry, Aelita! " Odd said using her real name for once fired two laser arrows at

her hitting her in the back. She slowly devirtualized yelling "Nooo!" She almost

made it into the tower.

"I hope you're right Einstein!" Odd stated leaving the obvious consequences to voice

themselves in their minds.

Jeremy looked at the scanner display. Yumi and Ulrich looked on while Odd started

to pace in Lyoko. After ten minutes, no Aelita.

"I don't understand. I would have bet my life!" Jeremy started to tear up as Yumi

looked at him sadly and Ulrich stood there in shock. "What have I done?" Jeremy

placed his head in his hands as tears began to flow.

"You did everything you could!" Ulrich placed his hand on Jeremy's shoulder. Yumi

placed her hand on Jeremy's other shoulder.

"Oh no I killed Aelita!" Odd sank to his knees burying his face in his hands. " I'm sorry

Princess!" He sobbed as he smashed his fisted paws into the ground in frustration.

The scanner indicator suddenly lit up. All three of the earth bound

Lyoko warriors ran to the elevator and waited in that place where seconds turned into

years. The elevator doors opened and they ran to the appropriate scanner and

opened it.

As the steam vacated the scanner, Aelita moaned and rubbed her head as she sat

up on the floor.

"Aelita!" Jeremy hoisted her up to her surprise. Her green eyes opened wide.

"What's going on?" She looked around. "Everything's fuzzy... Why is everyone s

excited?" She squinted like someone woke her up at 2AM.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Jeremy asked checking her over for injuries.

"I was trying to get to the tower to deactivate it and..." She paused. "I didn't make it.

did I?" She sighed sadly lowering her shoulders sitting down.

"You made it, Aelita. You made it." Jeremy knelt down, put his hands on her

shoulders looking into her green eyes and helped her up to her feet.

"Hey what's going on? Aelita's alright?" Odd asked hopefully.

"She's fine, Odd." Ulrich replied as Jeremy engaged in small talk and Yumi checked

Aelita over to make sure she was alright.

Odd gave a shout of complete joy as he leapt up and did a backward flip.

Cloture

After everyone came home from Lyoko, they met in the Lab to figure out what happened on

their mission. Jeremy sat at his station with the chair turned toward his friends. They pulled

the cot near enough to use it as a bench. Yumi sat down beside Odd and Ulrich crowded in

on the other end. Aelita sat down on the floor yoga-style facing Jeremy.

"Aelita got the inactive form of the bug in the data courtesy of Xana. The bright flash you

saw, Aelita, was Xana infecting the download." Jeremy explained. "I don't think that Aelita was

infected intentionally. Xana wanted to destroy the data."

"So that was why Xana didn't attack us after Aelita got infected." Ulrich finished the thought.

"The scanner didn't see it because it was dormant?" Aelita asked.

"At least at first…" Jeremy replied.

""The red hornet was the catalyst. The reason it's stinger didn't have any damage value

was it was the code activating the virus." Jeremy retorted. "That gave me the idea on how to

come up with an antivirus."

"Why didn't he just activated the virus at Carthage?" Odd asked.

"The scanner would have debugged it and it was probably too close to Xana's mind. Carthage

is a back-up for his mind and a connection might still exist." Jeremy explained

"Where does that leave us?" Ulrich asked with foreboding.

"We're still intact as a team!" Jeremy interjected. " But the data was lost."

"We stopped Xana from making Swiss cheese out of Aelita!" Odd offered.

Aelita blushed. "I'm sorry guys…"

"Don't." Yumi placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. "You did what you were suppose

to do and Xana got one over on us!"

"We are getting closer to defeating him. We learn more each time we fight him." Jeremy said

optimistically. "We'll know what to look for next time."


End file.
